Kid’s room
Sunday, October 18th, 2009Are children’s imaginations stifled when their rooms are decorated with marketed themes? Keep their gray matter growing by giving them space to focus on what juices their own creativity; When rooms are filled with raw material, kids have optimum opportunity to become their own heroes.
As a child, 1 played on my bed for hours, pretending it was a Conestoga wagon plodding West. No toys were needed apart from a knit shawl and a bonnet borrowed from my grandmother. A scene change called for dramatic capture by Indians, after which I went barefoot and wove my hair into braids. All the action was happening inside my head. One of my own little girls outdid me, though. One day, completing a writing assignment on deadline at the typewriter on the dining table, I had piled up toys and dolls for Leyah to play with, then dove into my work. Later I noticed the room had become totally silent. My four year-0ld was sitting stock-still in a little chair in the middle of the floor, staring into space.
I panicked thinking something was terribly wrong. “Leyah, are you all right? Why don’t you play?” I said. “Get your dolls and, please, play house or something!”